ART-PRESENTATION: HeK at LISTE Art Fair 2018
HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel) is dedicated to digital culture and the new art forms of the information age. HeK shows contemporary art that explores and configures new technologies; it promotes an aesthetic practice that uses information technology as a medium, makes it vividly accessible and actively intervenes in its processes. HeK thereby addresses the pressing issues of 21st Century culture and makes an active contribution to their future evolution.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: LISTE Art Fair Archive
As a special guest of the LISTE Art Fair, HeK presents a site-specific installation by the French artist group RYBN.ORG, together with a new work by the emerging Swiss artist Lauren Huret. Founded in 1999, the artistic group RYBN.ORG frequently appropriates the instruments of information technology, distorting their original function while giving them a new lifeform in the context of art. The underground space of the former Warteck brewery building serves as the headquarters for their ongoing research, as well as a place to display some of their innovative codes and blueprints. “The Offshore Tour Operator” is an invitation to experiment with the field techniques and tools that the RYBN.ORG artist collective has developed for their exploration of tax evasion networks and tax havens. A prototype GPS-assisted psycho-geographical drifting device guides the user through the city, through audio-guided direction and distance guidance, to the finance agent’s addresses shadow that are referenced in the database of Offshore Leaks, Panama Papers and Bahamas Leaks. The walker, equipped with the technical device and a compass, goes on the track of an address, and wanders through the streets of the city until discovering the entries of these companies screens, ghost companies, empty shells and nomads. RYBN.ORG invite participants to photograph the entrance, describe the places, observe the mailboxes and intercoms to check if the name of the offshore entity, unveiled by the leaks, is still there, and take notes on the road traveled to her. Lauren Huret’s visual work, which consists mainly of videos, performances and collage, reconsiders our ambiguous and confused relationship with machines, in particular with new technologies and the many unknowns they give rise to. The artist tackles the growing presence of digital media in our daily life and how these are constantly changing our behaviour and our perception of the world around us. She employs simple applications that are nowadays commonplace, thanks to the widespread use of smartphones and social websites. An example is her personal use of the ‘face swap’ tool, frequently used in the popular snapchat platform. Huret’s curious use of these social apps creates unexpected, almost surreal works that seem to depict mystic and uncanny occurrences in our surroundings. RYBN.ORG and Lauren Huret invite us to think about technology as a tool that reveals the hidden connections and the various layers of meaning that underpin reality. At the same time, they suggest that these very tools could also be used to conceal certain aspects of the world from our understanding by means of mystification and distortion.
Info: LISTE Art Fair, Burgweg 15, Basel, Mon (11/6/19) 17:00-21:00, Tue-Sat (12-16/6/18) 13:00-21:00, Sun (17/6/18) 13:00-18:00, Admission: Single entry” CHF 20, Reduced entry: CHF 10 (Students/Seniors/AHV), Free admission for kids up to 16 years, if accompanied by an adult, After 20:00: Single entry CHF 6, Students/Seniors/AHV free admission, www.liste.ch
